Total Quality Management (TQM)

1. The following are the four quality management and continuous improvement theories which ensures sustainability of business organizations:

The theory of total quality management is a quality improvement theory which originated in the US and has gained acceptance in companies all over the world. Benavides-Velasco, Quintana-García and Marchante-Lara (2014) defines total quality management or TQM can be defined as a process which involved creation of an organisational culture which enables continuous improvement of productivity to ensure satisfaction of customers. The system is based strongly the principle that preferences of customers are regarded as quality parameters. The firms strive to operate in ways to ensure production of goods according to the preferences of customers. Goetsch and Davis (2014) mentions that TQM is directly related to customer satisfaction, revenue generation and sustainability. Companies today consider the expectations of customers or clients as quality parameters which enables them to ensure production in line with the expectations of the latter. This paves way for customer satisfaction and revenue generation. The companies are able to retain their customers and generate repetitive business, thus ensuing future generation of revenue. This enables the companies to ensure financial sustainability in the market. Thus, it can established from the discussion that TQM ensures sustainability.

Six Sigma refers to tools and techniques business organisations use to ensure continuous improvement in production. Pyzdek and Keller (2014) mentions Six Sigma can be defined as the business process that identifying and removing the defects within the production system. This results in minimum variance between the key performance indicators defined by the company and the actual quality parameters achieved in the manufacturing process. Powell et al. (2017) point out that six sigma is directly associated with sustainability. This is evident from the fact that removing defects from the manufacturing process leads to more optimum utilisation of raw materials. This reduces wastage and the financial loss companies incur henceforth. Secondly, more optimum utilisation of raw materials reduce the amount of wastes released into the environment, thus reducing environmental risks and boosting environmental sustainability. Chugani et al. (2017) support this view by stating that the eradication of defects within the manufacturing process boosts the level of customer satisfaction, thus rendering the company higher revenue. Thus, it can be inferred that six sigma can pave ways for financial sustainability in two ways, first by reducing loss incurred wastage of raw materials as well as their storage and secondly by boosting revenue generation. Reduction in the wastage of material resources the level of environmental risks. Thus, it can be summarized that six sigma renders firms with sustainability.

Six Sigma

Kaizen refers to control of activities to bring about continuous improvement and involve all employees. von Thiele Schwarz et al. (2017) defines Kaizen as a process which involve in continuous improvement of the production process following the PDCA model. PDCA model stands for plan, do, check and act. Hasan and Hossain (2018) mention that compared to six sigma Kaizen is more employee centric. This is because while sigma lays more emphasis on manufacturing process, Kaizen places more emphasis on involvement of personnel across designations to ensure improvement in the entire operation of the firm. Sharma, Sharma and Singh (2015) point out that since Kaizen results in higher level of sustainability because it involves the employees of all designations and covers all areas of operations. This attributes the firms which high level of utilisation of available resources which includes financial resources, material resources and human resources. Since Kaizen encompasses all the areas of operations, it ensure sustainability in all areas.

Lean manufacturing is a systematic process of minimising wastes while maintaining productivity. Fercoq, Lamouri, and Carbone (2016) point out that lean management recognises wastes generated due to overburden or muri and waste created due to excessive work load or mura. The process of lean manufacturing like TQM takes into account preferences of customers while manufacturing of products.  The five types of wastes generated due to excessive work load or mura are unnecessary transport, maintaining of excessive inventory, inappropriate allocation of human resources as well as plants, long waiting time, overproduction, over processing and manufacturing defects. Martínez-Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes (2014) point out that failure of finished products to meet customer expectations and create value to the latter ultimately renders the entire production ineffective, thus resulting in wastage of the resources in the production of the goods. Thus, they stress on integrating of supply chains which provide firms with raw materials with the sustainability and quality management. Fullerton et al. (2014) mention here that supply of appropriate raw materials results in production of raw materials as per customer expectations, thus minimising waste generation. This reduces the amount of financial resources companies spend to dispose off wastes and the enables to create more value for customers. Bølviken and Koskela (2016) supports the view that reduction of wastes create value for the environment. Moreover, creation of value for customers attribute the companies with high revenue and a stable customer base on which they can base their future strategies. Thus, lean management first, reduces mura and wastage of raw materials, thus ensuing sustainability in terms of finance and environment respectively. Secondly, the earning of higher revenue and reduced financial loss due to fall in the wastage of raw materials yield financial sustainability. Moreover, due to stable customer bases, companies can form future business strategies, thus gaining market sustainability.

Kaizen

The stakeholder theory encompasses all the aforementioned theories and stresses on the obligations of the companies to benefit or create value for the stakeholders. Jensen (2017) mentions that the business organisations should aim to protect the interests of the stakeholders. Stakeholders refer to the individuals or groups which are capable of affecting the business operations and hence the business organisations are obliged to the former. Hörisch, Freeman, and Schaltegger (2014) mention that stakeholder theory is closely related to quality production and sustainability. Business organisations should take into account the expectations of the customers, primary stakeholders while manufacturing products. It can be pointed out that this opinion is closely related to the concept of TQM. Manufacturing of products in the line of customer expectations allow the companies to earn immense revenue, thus enabling the companies to give high returns to the shareholders and attracting more investment. Font, Garay and Jones (2016) mentions that benefiting customers and investors attributes the business firms with high revenue and capital respectively, thus attributing financial sustainability to the firms. Lozano, Carpenter and Huisingh (2015) point out that suppliers of raw materials are important stakeholders because they provide companies to with raw materials. The companies should ensure timely payment of their suppliers which would enable the latter provide higher quality of raw materials. This would enable the companies manufacture products by minimising the wastes and make maximum usage of the raw materials. It can be pointed out that in this respect stakeholder theory follows the lean manufacturing theory (Strand and Freeman 2015). The management and employees are internal who actually run the company. The former makes the strategies while the latter execute the strategies, thus leading to high degree of business operations. This ensures optimum usage of resources and reduction in the disruptions in productivity due to management-employee conflict. An analysis of the fact discussed above points out that it relates closely to Kaizen. Mansell (2015) adds here that optimum level of raw materials results in lower amount of wastes, thus ensuring environmental sustainability, thus protecting interest of society by reducing environmental pollution. Thus, the discussion can be closed by mentioning that stakeholder theory ensures sustainability of business organisations.

2. The 8 step change model points out to 8 steps in which management of business organisations can bring about transformational changes in their business operations. The first step to bring about the about transformational in the organisations is to create urgency. The management should identify the potential future threats which would demand the change like installation of advanced technology. The management should enable the lower level employees to view the requirement to introduce the changes and the business opportunities which the changes can usher in future like higher level of inter-departmental collaboration (Hornstein 2015). The second step of Kotter’s change model is to form a strong coalition. This means the management should direct the senior management to lead the change process by involving people across hierarchies (Smallet al. 2016). The third step to bring about a transformational change is creation of a vision which means that management bodies should identify the organisational profit which the company aims to achieve by undergoing the transformational change. The fourth step to embrace the change is communication of the aims of the change to the employees on regular basis. Continuous communication between the management and employees enables the form gain greater support of the latter in the direction of the change. The fifth stage of transformational change model by Kotter is to remove the obstacles. The obstacles can refer to lack of change drivers or employees who are resisting the change. The management should take steps to deal with the barriers to change like providing counselling conflicting employees. Similarly rewarding and motivating employees support the change would motivate the resenting employees to get involved towards bringing about the changes (Pollack and Pollack 2015). The sixth step towards embracing the change is to ensure achievement of short terms achievement of aims towards the change. This means that management of the company divides the entire change process smaller parts and concentrates on achieving these smaller divisions, ultimately achieve the change as a whole. The seventh step to introduce the transformational change is building on the portions of the total changes achieved. The management identify the areas of the achieved portion of changes which require further changes and rectification. This is followed by taking of appropriate steps to deal with the recognised short comings and ultimately making the change as a whole effective. The last or eighth step is the incorporate the change in the corporate culture (Ceptureanu 2015). This ensure acceptance of the transformed process as a part of normal modus operandi of the company, thus attributing success to the entire change process.

Lean Manufacturing

3. ISO 9000 comprise of management systems which the management bodies of business organisations need to incorporate within the modes of operations to ensure customer satisfaction, high returns to shareholders and compliance with statutory obligations or laws in force. Castka and Corbett (2015) point out that ISO 9000 include seven quality management principles referred to as QMPs. They seven QMPs are customer focus, leadership, engagement of people, process approach, improvement, decision making based on evidences and management of relationship with customers.

4. Cost benefit analysis or benefit cost analysis refers to the system which business organisations employ to measure the strengths of the alternatives available to them to achieve a predetermined business objective. Celli et al. (2017) mentions that companies consider the different approaches which they take and choose the approach which would involve minimum costs, or in other words yield the highest possible returns. For example, to develop a new product, a company can either outsource the development activity to a third party firm or develop the product in-house. The company consider the different costs it would have to incur for adopting both the approaches against the budgeted profit. This is followed by adopting the more cost approach among the two approaches. The following are the steps outlined which business organisations can adopt to carry out a cost benefit analysis:

1. Determining the goals which the business organisations want to achieve like profit and increase in customer base.
2. Determination of the different alternatives. For example, going by the above example, the alternatives available for consideration are outsourcing the new product development and developing in in-house.
3. The companies consider the stakeholder groups which would be affected by the business operations like customers, shareholders, management, employees and suppliers.
4. Conducting a sensitivity analysis
5. Choosing the most appropriate alternative.

5. Learning organisation can be defined as an organisation which facilitates continuous learning of its employees by providing them training and mentoring. Bolman and Deal (2017) mention that learning organisations adopt strategic human resource management and align their employees with their organisational objectives. This means that stress on strengthening their human resources and show greater adaptation to changes.

6. Learning organisations are companies which exhibit high degree of shared value among employees across. Serrat (2017) points out that employees perceive the training and development undertaken by the company as a sign of belongingness to the organisations. They as a result accept and uphold organisational values established by the apex management.

7. The concept of team learning can be defined as the collaboration between the members of an organisational team like a department to achieve a common goal. The members of the team involve in dialogues and discussions to recognise the different approaches which can be taken to achieve the objective. Team learning can also positive conflicts among the members which ultimately encourages generation of innovative ideas to acquire the predetermined targets.

Stakeholder Theory

Note on figure 1:

	Conflicts
S1, 2,3…	Subordinates

8. The following are the sustainability practices common in Australian workplaces:

Safe Work Act- Ensures sustainability by reducing employee accidents and productivity loss due to accidents (Safeworkaustralia.gov.au. 2018).

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)- The laws ensures protection of Australia’s natural areas like marine systems and forests (Environment.gov.au. 2018).

Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act 2001- Led to formation of ASIC which ensures financial sustainability of Australian businesses (Asic.gov.au. 2018).

10. AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 defines risks as integral part of every business activity. The standard further mentions that risks which organisations can be internal as well as external. Risks tend to impede achievement of business targets of business organisations (Iso.org. 2018).

11. Risk management is the process which involve identifying, evaluating and setting the priority risks which have to be addressed in the short run as well as the risks which have to be managed in the long run. The factors which make risk management successful are early identification, identification of the risk owner, analysis of the outcome of the risks identified and taking steps to eradicate or at least minimise the risks. This is followed by monitoring the risk management methods applied and taking appropriate measures to manage risks which may be newly identified (Schiller and Prpich 2014).  The factors which inhibit effective risk management are lack of human resources, lack of financial resources, lack of readiness among the employees to respond to risks and lack of market knowledge.

The seven steps according to AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 risk management process are creation of organisational values, adoption of risks management measures as a part of organisational operation and explicit address of future uncertainties. The fifth, sixth and seventh steps are forming a structured risk management methods, base the methods on evidences and information and adapt the risk management strategies according to the risks respectively (Finance.gov.au 2018).

The management M/s Woodhouse Recruitment should consider the number of areas of improvement as a part of the sustainability program. The areas of improvement which the company should take into account are sustainability, staff development and stationary sourcing.

The following are the strategies which the company can implement and evaluate the current level of performance and sustainability:

The current supply chain which the company is using is not sustainable and needs improvement. First, company should form a central sustainable strategy which should also include supply chains. Secondly, the company should source environment friendly recycled paper which should be procured in biodegradable packages.

Kotter’s 8-step Change Model

The company can measure the improvement parameters by using several tools. The tools can be qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative measures can be the decreasing the amount of pollution due to reduction of wastes and use of recycled paper. Again, the quantitative measures can consist of measuring the expenditure the company would be suffering due to high waste emission.

The two specialists which the company can use to attain sustainability are using ecommerce to source environment friendly paper and hiring of a waste management specialists.

Woodhouse Recruitment can modern waste management systems which is a trend in the corporate organisations. Moreover, the company can opt for green supply chain management to ensure higher level of sustainability.

The recruitment process of Woodhouse Recruitment did not have any specified ways of employee training and professional development plan. This prevented the firm should recruiting high quality staff members which resulted in poor target achievement.

The key findings of the report mailed are as follows:

1. Woodhouse Recruitment lacked proper sustainable strategies.
2. The company lacked well specified human resource management strategies.
3. The company exhibit very poor management of data stock.

The aim of the action plan should aim to ensure sustainability of Woodhouse Recruitment. It should also aim to ensure continuous sustainability and improvement of the company. This would enable the company to ensure higher level of customer satisfaction and generate higher revenue.  

Activity no	Activities	Period (months)
1	The departmental heads measure and record the performances of the subordinates	2
2	Present the perfromance before senior management and HR department	0.25
3	Recognising training needs	0.25
4	Training of employees	1
	Risk management training	0.25
	Technological training	0.25
	Sustainability sourcing and operating training(TQM/Kaisen/lean management)	0.5
5	Monitoring of employee performance	2
6	Recognising training needs	2
7	Formation of a standard recruitment policy	2
8	Contingency plan	14
	Allocation of funds towards contingency plan	2
	Monitoring of employee performance	6
	Recruitment of new employees and activity 1 starts	6

Assumptions:

1. It has been assumed that the firm is a middle sized firm and hence either of the three approaches namely TQM/Kaizen or lean management would be used.

2 It has also been assumed that the cost benefit analysis has only two options which would be considered to choose the most beneficial option.

isks	Identification	Management	Cost benefit analysis	Impact of change
			Option A	Option B	Basis of analysis
Lack of KPIs	Inaporopriate measurement of the performance of staff	Formation of KPIs	NA			Improvement in perfromance measurement of the company
Lack of social media presence	Lack of access to market and interaction with customers	Launching of pages on social media like Twitter and Facebook	Company develops and manages pages on social media	Outsources management of social media	Compares the costs of Option A and Option.	Uninterrupted interaction on consumers
Lack of staff professional development plan	Leads to high turnover of employees and leads to loss of talent	Formation of stfaf perofessional development program	Company can develop professional plan in-house	Outsourcing of the same	Compares the costs of Option A and Option.	Proper professional development of staff
Lack of sustainability	Lack of sustainability and high amount of wastes	Adoption of sustainable practices	Company can install waste management plant	Hire services of a waste management company	Compares the costs of Option A and Option.	More sustainable and environment friendly operations
Purchase of non-environment friendly paper	High costs of aqcuire stationary. Disposal pollutes environment	Acqusisition of Green supply chain	Company can install waste management plant	Hire services of a waste management company	Compares the costs of Option A and Option.	More sustainable and environment friendly operations

1. The survey sent out by Woodhouse Recruitment is not effective because the findings of the survey are not sufficed by the actual performance of the company. The company suffered from poor performance, lacked proper recruitment policies and did not sustainable policies in place. However, the finding of second question of the survey shows high degree of customer satisfaction which is not correct. Thus, it can be summarised as that the survey of Woodhouse Recruitment was not effective or even the given survey could be false.
2. Woodhouse in future should source materials using green supply chains and proper HRM strategies. The management of the company should plan employee development plans to train and promote employees.

1. An analysis of the survey shows that seven percent of the clients are satisfied by the recruitment policies of Woodhouse which should have reflected in the sales generated amount. However, considering the target sales was 12 percent, it can be pointed out that the satisfaction rate does not suffice the actual fact presented. Similarly, the second finding reveals 50 percent of the clients were satisfied doing business with Woodhouse Recruitment. This figure can be considered partially correct taking into consideration the revenue generation increase of 10 percent. The third question reveals that the 50 percent of the clients would recommend Woodhouse to the acquaintances which is also accepted. However, the overall client satisfaction score of 70 percent cannot be accepted. The analysis of the overall survey clearly shows that the findings are inaccurate and inappropriate.
2. It can be recommended the future customer surveys should take place regular base. The customer surveys should take place monthly and the accurate data should be presented.

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